The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation. Though the church deems the allegations against the men credible, the archdiocese has declined to release information about the complaints, including the number of accusers, the dates of the alleged abuse and the parishes where the men worked. The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese's website last month alongside 12,000 pages of internal records related to its handling of abuse claims.

The Roman Catholic archbishop of Atlanta demolished a ranch home that had been donated to the church by Joseph Mitchell, whose aunt Margaret Mitchell wrote "Gone With The Wind," and spent $2.2 million of the bequest to build himself a Tudor-style mansion. The project, which began in 2012, sparked outrage among some of the archdiocese's 1 million parishioners when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month in a front-page story reported that...

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has sold its 12-story administrative headquarters building to help pay last year's $660-million settlement with people alleging sex abuse by clergy, a spokesman said Tuesday. The Archdiocesan Catholic Center was sold to Jamison Properties of Los Angeles for $31 million, archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said.

A church deacon who said he tumbled into a "dark and muddy" grave during a funeral service is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Alfonso Valles alleged in the legal claim that he suffered a broken arm and other injuries when he landed at the bottom of a 6-foot grave at the San Gabriel Mission cemetery. Valles was standing on top of a platform during the summer of 2012 at the San Gabriel Mission cemetery when, “without any warning whatsoever,” the platform collapsed, according to court documents filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles this month asked a state judge to consider delaying or moving an sexual abuse trial, claiming it can't get a fair trial in Southern California. That request was denied. But what I find interesting, and apparently so did many of our readers, is the church's reasoning for the request. The Times' Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported that lawyers for the archdiocese argued in court documents that the media's coverage, which they described as unrelenting obloquy, has poisoned the potential jury pool here.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston is being elevated to the rank of archdiocese because of the growth of Catholicism in Texas, church officials said. The designation by Pope John Paul II makes Texas the second state in the country, joining California, to have two archdioceses. Galveston-Houston will join San Antonio in administering to about 6.5 million Roman Catholics in the state. Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza was named archbishop.

The beleaguered Archdiocese of Boston eliminated 15 staff positions as part of budget cuts made necessary in part by the Roman Catholic Church's ongoing sex abuse scandal in which it has played a central role. The archdiocese said that the economic downturn and fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were the driving forces behind its move to slash its budget by a third, or about $8 million.

The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese said it will buy two Catholic cemeteries in Tucson for $3.9 million as part of an effort to rescue the financially ailing diocese in southern Arizona. The cemeteries will be operated by the Los Angeles archdiocese, but a spokesman for Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony said this week that the agreement calls for the Tucson diocese to repurchase the facilities for the same amount when financially feasible.

Cardinal Roger Mahony walked slowly across the sanctuary of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, leaning softly on his shepherd's staff as he completed one of his last public acts as archbishop of Los Angeles. Passing the altar on one side and his assembled bishops on the other, he finally reached the man who was taking over his position as head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese. Mahony handed the crooked staff, known as a crosier, to Archbishop Jose Gomez, symbolizing one of the most ancient traditions of the church, the transfer of authority from one bishop to another.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest to charges of failing to tell authorities about sex-abuse allegations, becoming the third Roman Catholic diocese to strike a deal with prosecutors in a criminal investigation. The archdiocese was sentenced to $10,000 in fines on five misdemeanor counts. Each of the five counts of failure to report a felony alleged "an institutional knowledge that certain felony sex crimes involving minors occurred."

Join Times staff writer Victoria Kim for a discussion at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on what officials say is the Los Angeles Archdiocese's final settlement of its pending priest molestation lawsuits. A decade of wrenching abuse litigation has cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million. What is supposed to be the final settlement was reached last week with 17 victims for $13 million. That trial would have been about the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over nine months in 1987.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has settled what officials said is the last of its pending priest molestation lawsuits, bring to a close a decade of wrenching abuse litigation that cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million. The church reached the $13-million agreement with 17 victims last week, on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin Feb. 14 over the alleged acts of Father Nicolas Aguilar-Rivera, a visiting cleric from Mexico who police believe molested more than two dozen boys over a mere nine months in 1987.

Thousands of pages of secret church documents released Tuesday as part of a court settlement provide an unprecedented look at how the Archdiocese of Chicago for years failed to protect children from abusive priests. The documents provide new details and insights into how the nation's third-largest archdiocese quietly shuttled accused priests from parish to parish and failed to notify police of child abuse allegations. The paper trail, going back decades, also portrays painfully slow progress toward reform, accountability and openness.

Join Times reporters Ashley Powers and Victoria Kim for an L.A. Now Live chat at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss their series on Cardinal Roger Mahony and his role in the Catholic Church's child abuse sex scandal. FULL STORY: Clergy abuse cases were a threat to agenda Powers, Kim and reporter Harriet Ryan examined Mahony's role and actions in a two-day series of stories. They wrote: In the child sex abuse scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church, Mahony is a singular figure.

Two men came forward to say that a prominent leader of the Los Angeles archdiocese during the post-war boom years molested them, the L.A. Times reported Sunday. Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes was a power broker in Los Angeles during that era. The second-in-command to two cardinals, he ran the Los Angeles church for three decades, a span during which it grew into the largest, most diverse, and by some counts, wealthiest archdiocese in the nation. His knack for money and real estate gave him influence from Rome to Hollywood.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles this month asked a state judge to consider delaying or moving an sexual abuse trial, claiming it can't get a fair trial in Southern California. That request was denied. But what I find interesting, and apparently so did many of our readers, is the church's reasoning for the request. The Times' Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported that lawyers for the archdiocese argued in court documents that the media's coverage, which they described as unrelenting obloquy, has poisoned the potential jury pool here.

Cardinal Timothy Manning, a mild-mannered Roman Catholic prelate who led the Los Angeles archdiocese through a 15-year period that saw it grow into the nation's most populous and ethnically diverse, died Friday afternoon. He was 79 and died at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Center at the University of Southern California, where he had been admitted June 7. Bill Rivera, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said he died at 2:25 p.m. and that his successor, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, was at his bedside.

In an acknowledgment that new revelations in the priest abuse scandal have tarnished the church's image, lawyers for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are seeking to postpone upcoming sexual abuse trials or relocate them to a courthouse 200 miles away because they don't believe they can get a fair trial in Southern California. The church's request to a judge for a delay or change of venue in pending cases this week came just hours after the announcement that the archdiocese would pay two brothers an unprecedented $4 million each to avoid a molestation trial set for April.

In an acknowledgment that new revelations in the priest abuse scandal have tarnished the church's image, lawyers for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are seeking to postpone upcoming sexual abuse trials or relocate them to a courthouse 200 miles away because they don't believe they can get a fair trial in Southern California. The church's request to a judge for a delay or change of venue in pending cases this week came just hours after the announcement that the archdiocese would pay two brothers an unprecedented $4 million each to avoid a molestation trial set for April.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to four men who say they were molested by one of the region's most notorious pedophile priests. The agreement brings to an end four lawsuits against the archdiocese involving Michael Baker, a charismatic parish priest accused of molesting at least 23 boys over three decades. The church has settled numerous cases brought by Baker's alleged victims in the past, but the $9.9-million settlement announced Tuesday is the first settlement since the January release of 12,000 pages of internal archdiocese records about abuse.